Security software may attempt to determine the trustworthiness of a file using various heuristics and/or based on various community-supplied information about the file. For example, security software may attempt to determine whether a file is malicious by determining whether the file matches a unique digital signature or fingerprint associated with a known-malicious file. Additionally or alternatively, the security software may attempt to assess the trustworthiness of the file by obtaining a reputation score for the file from a reputation service. In this example, the reputation service may assign the reputation score to the file by collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data from potentially millions of user devices within a community (such as the user base of a security-software vendor) that identify, among other details, the file's origin, age, and prevalence within the community (such as whether the file is predominantly found on at-risk or “unhealthy” machines within the community).
Unfortunately, while a user may (in some cases) see the results of such a trustworthiness evaluation immediately upon its completion, the user may fail to recall the results of the trustworthiness evaluation at a future point in time (e.g., when viewing files within a file manager interface). Thus, the user may be unable to identify the trustworthiness of a file displayed within a file manager interface without requesting a separate evaluation of the file's trustworthiness. Consequently, if the user fails to request a separate trustworthiness evaluation prior to opening or executing a file, the user may unknowingly open or execute a file that is less trustworthy than another file that performs a substantially similar function. For example, the user may unknowingly execute a calculator application that is less trustworthy than another calculator application stored in the same directory.
As such, the instant disclosure identifies a need for systems and methods for enabling users to quickly and easily identify (and/or compare) the trustworthiness of files without having to request a separate evaluation of the files' trustworthiness.